There once was a time when America celebrated corporate leaders rather than those who exposed corporate misdeeds, as in 1955, when TIME named General Motors president Harlow Herbert Curtice man of the year:

Because of the success of the American economic system, the U.S. rolled through 1955 in two-toned splendor to an all-time crest of prosperity, heralded around the world. Much of this prosperity was directly attributable to the manufacture and sale of that quintessential American product, the automobile... Production alone would not make Harlow Herbert Curtice, 62, the Man of the Year. Nor would the fact that he is president...